Millions of people suffer life-altering and life-threatening consequences from any of a variety of medical conditions and disease states that impair circulation. These medical conditions and disease states range from one-time occurrences to chronic conditions, and include shock, traumatic brain injury, cardiac arrest, dehydration, kidney failure, congestive heart failure, wound healing, diabetes, stroke, respiratory failure, and orthostatic hypotension. The consequences of reduced circulation are severe and burden the health care system with billions of dollars of expenditures on an annual basis.
Despite advances in the field of circulatory enhancement, the need for improved approaches for treating patients with impaired circulation remains an important medical challenge. For example, there is an ongoing need for noninvasive techniques that enhance circulation of blood throughout the body, thereby increasing the opportunity for survival and the quality of life of patients who experience major medical emergencies and severe circulatory conditions. One of the inherent limitations to CPR when performed when the body is flat and in the horizontal plane is that with each compression the arterial and venous pressure waves simultaneously increase and compress the brain within the fixed space of the skull. Often the arterial and venous pressures are in excess of 100 mmHg, thereby providing the possibility of harm by continuous compression waves applied to the brain bidirectionally from venous and arterial pressures with each compression. Thus, with each compression intracranial pressure is elevated to potentially dangerously high levels, potentially further injuring the brain. The features or aspects of the present disclosure provide effective solutions to at least some of these challenges and other needs.